h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How do I know what stage an entry is at? If it is not on the Peer Review Page any more, but not yet on this "What's Coming Up?"

If I have submitted an Entry, how do I know when it is going to be edited? Will it just disappear from my page or do I get a chance to add that last bit of information/date/address/correct a typo/embed a nifty little picture beforehand? Do I get a warning?

Is the Entry radically changed? Are the relevant additions from the threads then included by the Editors? Who checks them for accuracy?

Okay, you know if its being edited (if you submitted it to the Peer Review System) if its appeared on the Coming Up page.
I think that the answer to how do you know is, you don't. Editors will always look at the most recent version of an entry, but if you edit it some while they're editing, they may not pick it up. As far as correcting typos, the editors will do that if you let one slip through. Embedded pictures will unfortunately have to be removed, partly because if the art department at h2g2 do all the pictures it makes them appear uniform, and partly because of copyright considerations.

Assuming you've written the entry to conform with the writing guidelines (http://www.h2g2.com/writing-guidlines) and no one else has written on the same subject, the entry won't be changed much. Spelling will be corrected, the odd footnote put in or removed, and the odd bit of extra information may be added. The subediors check for accuracy; it doesn't usually take much research on a subject to see whether the researcher knew what they were talking about, and to make sure its not been copied from somewhere.

I hope this answers some of your questions...

Well, it is comforting, but I still don't know if is really being looked at. Why do some people have at the bottom of their pages, on the left, for example, ", recommended" after their "Most Recent Guide Entries"?

I also have some trouble with understanding this new system. You can search among Guide Entries, Edited Guide Entries and Recommended Guide Entries, so what is the last one (exactly)? Then there is this status of 'pending'. What does this mean (equally exactly)? Apparently these statuses are not just names, they are properties in the h2g2 database. But when (exactly!) does an entry have them? Some people reported that those pending articles can't be searched. Is this true? If so, why?

I think that thing about pending entries may well be true... So if an entry's

*Recommended - this has either been submitted under the old system, and not reached decision point under that yet, OR it has been picked up by a scout, and I think edited by a subeditor, but not yet reviewed by Sam or Crusader, the in house assistant editors
*Pending - this has been reccmmended, edited, looked at by the towers, and is in a queue for the front page... under the old system pending entries would vanish from everywhere, which was a real pain...
*Guide Entries - searching guide entries are all those which (for whatever reason) haven't been recommended or edited, *in some cases the key word is yet). Guide entries are all those which have been put into peer review with nothing else happening to them, and entries like that for the Aroma Cafe which was never intended to make the recommended guide...

I appreciate that. I have one entry ready, which I have been talking about here, which is a sort of static affair, and one other which should never be edited or made official, because it contains information that I shall be continually updating (well, I intend to)

+++

Now there is one danger here. If I am not sure whether my entry was in the Peer Review Stage - I thought it was, but now I am beginning to doubt it - I am very likely to go and post it there again. Just to draw attention to it. If it is in the labyrinths of the Editing system already, I have therefore (unintentionally)

a) cluttered up the system by introducing a new article twice
b) risked having the article included as an entry twice, further cluttering the system
c) given the editors twice as much work to do.

And all because I had no proof after the first time round that I had actually been successful in drawing the PTBs' attention to it in the first place.

Well what you can do is find the original thread and post to it again to bring it to the top of the list...

...I don't know quite what the rules for scouts are, but this morning when I checked i had one entry on page 16 of the peer review forum, which no scout has been near, and a few others... ...I think that the system is fallible, and that the scouts are only beginning to find their feet...

The entry won't get added twice. They search the guide to see if there's anything else on the same subject, and they'd realise the entry was already in the system.

Another question:

When is it superfluous to update one's entry? Already when it's on this page?

When its on this page its still well worth updating your entry. When a subeditor comes to look at it they'll look at the most recent version, and to a certain extent even after an edited version of an entry has appeared on your page with either recommended or pending status, you can ask someone in the Towers if there's an edit you really have to make...

Hope this helps.

Hi.

Anna's just put together an explanation of the process at http://www.h2g2.com/A463259 - take a look, as this might help explain things.